Lofty Ideals and Afghan Reality - Is there an “Obama Doctrine” lurking among the zigs and zags of the president’s foreign policy over these first nine months? I think there is, in his repeated invocation of global rights and responsibilities. The problem is that this lawyerly framework hasn’t been applied to the really tough issues, such as what to do in Afghanistan.
I have been looking for a “doctrine” because, frankly, strategic thinking has been this administration’s weak spot. A pragmatic president has surrounded himself with pragmatic advisers—a retired Marine general as national security adviser, a former senator as secretary of state, a career intelligence officer as secretary of defense. None are grand strategists on the model of Henry Kissinger or Zbigniew Brzezinski. Full Piece
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